Digital Skills Development (Hosted online by ALN Technology CoP)
About this event
Date: Thursday 10th February 2022
Time: 2.00 - 4.30pm
The event will look at developing and enhancing staff digital skills.
It is being organised and run by the ALN Technology CoP. The digital skills development theme is based upon survey responses carried out by ALN earlier in the year, which indicated that staff in member libraries would like an event covering staff training and digital/online skills.
Programme
14.00 - 14.05 - Intro
14.05 - 14.25 - Laura Riella (Edge Hill) - Build Accessible: Working with staff at Edge Hill University to develop their awareness of digital accessibility.
From September 2020, all of the content that we produce and share, including on our website, Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), the internal staff wiki etc., must comply with the public sector regulations. This government regulation is an extension of the Equality Act 2010 and is benchmarked against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 AA.
To support staff at Edge Hill University with this legislation and seeking to raise the importance of accessibility, we have developed a range of materials to support staff with making their materials accessible and to raise their awareness of accessibility. For example, we developed a collection of wiki pages, created support documentation/guides, delivered sessions and created an interactive toolkit. We also developed a campaign called ‘Build Accessible’ (still currently running) focused on why it is important to build documents with accessibility in mind from the outset, rather than to make changes after its production and potential distribution. We have also established an Accessibility Network too with colleagues from across the institution.
This session will focus on our commitment to driving the accessibility legislation, how/why we developed materials to support staff and creating a culture of inclusion. It also aims to provide attendees with some best practice and useful strategies that can be put in place in your own institution.
14.25 - 14.45 - Dan Meer (Cumbria) - Cybersecurity
Cyber security is everyone's responsibility and we want everyone to be safe when using computers or accessing the internet for both studies and for leisure, without being bullied, scammed or losing either your ideas or identity. Cyber security is about being smart about how you access and use technology.
In this session I will touch upon some of the common threats you may encounter; because if you understand the problems you can help to reduce your own risk!
14.45 - 15.00 - Nilani Ganeshwaran (Manchester) - Demystifying Library carpentry
Library professions are changing dramatically - are we ready to embrace the future of librarianship? What benefits could digital skills training programmes such as Library Carpentry bring to my role?
15.00 - 15.10 - Break
15.10 - 15.40 - Arielle Redman (York) - Creating a Digital Culture
Technology should enhance and expand what people can do, therefore people must be central to a digital change programme for it to succeed. Those using digital technologies need to be empowered stakeholders who are listened to, supported and have opportunities to engage with digital change initiatives. This engagement should include opportunities to explore how new digital technologies can be embedded into practices and transform processes. There needs to be space for experimentation and building understanding and confidence through the development of digital skills.
Successful digital transformation is reliant on culture and staff engagement across all levels of the organisation. In this interactive workshop we will consider barriers to digital change, the opportunities presented by digital technologies and steps we can take to build a digital culture. Workshop participants will get the opportunity to reflect on and share their current digital practices, explore how digital technologies can be used to transform processes and start to develop a digital culture action plan.
15.40 - 16.00 - Leah Emary (Sunderland) - Editing wikipedia
This talk will cover how editing Wikipedia can help library workers develop digital skills while improving the accuracy and completeness of one of the world’s top 10 websites. Library workers have strong and nuanced skills in information literacy, copyright, and referencing, as well as access rich library collections. This makes us well suited to thrive as editors after some initial training. Participants will come away with practical steps they can take to get started.
16.00 - 16.30 - Discussion and wrap-up
If you need any more information about the event, please contact Gopal Dutta (g.dutta@mmu.ac.uk) by early January 2022.